As
U.S. companies and the federal government look for ways to limit
cybercrime, a new report from ArcSight reveals companies pay $3.8
million (a median figure) due to cybercrime every year.

Research
collected from 45 companies over a four-week period discovered 50
successful cyber attacks every week. Hackers are interested in
stealing a variety of things including employee records, customer
information, credit card numbers, Social Security numbers, and other
sensitive information.

President Barack Obama has made
cybersecurity a priority in his administration, with military leaders
also trying to increase their cyber defense abilities.

Hackers
now want to attack companies to steal trade secrets that can be sold
or held for ransom. The Virginia Health database
previously suffered
unauthorized server access, and then received a ransom demand so
the records wouldn't be sold. This type of attack is expected
to increase if hackers are able to easily access sensitive
information.

Around 90 percent of the cost related to
cyber crime cleanup stems from necessary responses to
attacks using malicious code. Companies also need to have
internal detection systems in place to prevent unauthorized access.
Millions of dollars will be invested to try and better increase cyber
security, especially as the use of trojans and malware increase
year-over-year.

In addition, around half of all
successful malware was installed on a PC or network by a remote
user. About 19 percent of malware was installed after a user
visited an infected website, while 9 percent unintentionally
installed malware when clicking on a URL in an e-mail or instant
message.

The financial sector was the most popular
target among cyber criminals, with 33 percent of total data
breaches. The No. 2 position was captured by the hospitality
industry (restaurants, hotels, etc.) with 23 percent, a Verizon
annual cyberattack study implies.

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Is this article somehow trying to suggest that companies who do business in "brick and mortar" locations do not have any costs associated with security? Alarm systems, Closed-Circuit monitoring, security staff as well as any fees levied by local law enforcement to be "on call" are all typical costs that any business will pay even if they have no online presence.

Relatively speaking the cost to secure digital data is substantially lower. You just need some well thought-out policies and encryption for sensitive material. Keeping "trade secrets" offline, or at least on a private network that is isolated from the internet and has restricted access is more like common sense than it is something that requires buckets of money to implement.

“And I don't know why [Apple is] acting like it’s superior. I don't even get it. What are they trying to say?” -- Bill Gates on the Mac ads